Indian Independence Act 1947

Introduction

The Indian Independence Act, 1947 legislation was passed by the parliament of Britain that aimed for the independence of India and the partition between Pakistan and India. It was a renewed form of The Government of India Act, of 1935, which the government of Clement Attlee created.

Clement Richard Attlee

©Winterbergen, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Indian Independence Act 1947: Background

The background − the act took a long process that was mainly started with the regulation of 1935, The Act of Indian Government.

• The government body of Clement Attlee drafted this legislation based on the plan of Mountbatten. The leaders of The Indian National Congress (INC) as well as The Muslim League formulated this act.

• Mountbatten only came to India to hand over the authority of India to the leaders but INC as well as the League did not initially agree with their partition proposal.

• The initial plan of Mountbatten was to allow British officials to join the Constituent Assembly but Nehru strongly opposed this plan.

• This plan was proposed on 3rd June and was accepted by all. The leaders of INC and the League initially opposed this plant but finally, it was accepted.

• Punjab and Bengal’s Legislative Assembly voted for the opposition to the partition based on religious lines.

• This act provided an opportunity for the grand independence of India and Pakistan on respectively 15th and 14th August 1947.

• New boundaries were set up between two countries that were totally maintained by Boundary Commission.

• According to this act, more than 560 states were merged to form an Indian province and the officials of Britain would completely have ceased to use the honour of the Emperor anymore.

• It was decided that the respective post of Governors-General would continue in both countries. As per the act, Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor- General of Pakistan and for India, it was Lord Mountbatten.

Features of The Act

The act includes some significant features to guide the Indian leaders in ruling this country properly.

• This act regulated India as an independent as well as a sovereign country.

• This act also declared that the province would be divided according to the religious differences between India and Pakistan.

• The designation State’s Secretory was totally abolished in India. The act declared that two separate Governor-General would be appointed for the two countries (Noorani, 2019).

• The Constituent Assemblies of these two countries would make accordion g to their constitutions and the British officials did not interfere in their activities.

• The Monarch of Britain would not get any veto power anymore to interfere in any bill or regulation.

• This act would allow making an individual constitution for these two countries and abiding by the constitution to rule the provinces properly.

Development After the Regulation of The Act

Several developments or amendments happened to this act to make the act powerful and appropriate for the people in the provinces. According to this act, the Constituent Assembly of the Indian counterpart drafted the constitution of the country where all the rules and regulations were mentioned to follow by the people and the leaders of the provinces (Noorani, 2019).

As per this act, the constitution of the country came into force on 26th January 1950 to declare the state as a republic country. Pakistan became a republic state on 23rd March 1956.

A great issue was merged into different princely states and most of the states sign their official document as per the accession that led to a dominion. Most princely states were separated based on their geographic location along with their jurisdiction’s choice (Jakobsen et al. 2019). Most of the states that were near the Indian territory merged with India as per their decisions.

The suzerainty of the British officials has totally dissolved in India as well as Pakistan. The total power was handed over to the individual leaders of these two countries. As per the act, the country people selected their leaders for independent states. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was selected as the first Prime Minister of independent India (Jakobsen et al. 2019).

Liaqat Ali Khan became the first Prime Minister for the Pakistani counterpart after independence.

Conclusion

The act of independence of India paved the way for the process of independence of both states India and Pakistan. The crown of the British fully transferred the power to these states that were newly formed. India became independent as per this act through was accompanied by the incident of violent partition. A great issue was seen during the migration of people and it is a great massacre in global history as millions of people perished during the migration of people from one state to another.

FAQs

Q1. What was the contribution of Lord Listowel in making the act?

Ans. Lord Listowel, was one of the State’s secretory of India before independence and he was a member of the Cabinet committee of the British as well. He introduced the act for the first time in the Parliament of Britain and it was passed after some negotiation. The violent separation between India and Pakistan according to religious differences was added to the regulation.

Q2. What were the principal aspects of the act?

Ans. The principal aspect of the act was to transfer all the power of India and Pakistan to the leaders of these two countries. Another aspect of this act was to make these two countries independent along with the sovereign countries.

Q3. What happened to the Punjab and Bengal states after the regulation of this act?

Ans. After the regulation of this act, Punjab and Bengal states were divided. Punjab was divided into West and East Punjab and the same situation happened to Bengal as well.